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Niki Lauda: "Hamilton took blame for crash with Rosberg"

Published on 16 May 2016 10:52
9
By: Danny Sosef

Not everyone is pointing the finger of blame at Lewis Hamilton after Mercedes' catastrophic double-DNF in Barcelona. That is despite the fact that even the reigning triple world champion's boss, team chairman Niki Lauda, is adamant the Briton spiralling out of control and collecting championship leader Nico Rosberg was all Hamilton's fault.

Rosberg, however, is still not happy.

"I feel no solace that Niki Lauda blamed him (Hamilton)," said the German. "I have lost a win and 25 points."

But as far as Lauda is concerned, he is already prepared to put the matter behind the team.

"Lewis looked us in the eye and took the blame," the famous Austrian said.

"He apologised. He took everything on himself. That's fine with me," Lauda told the Austrian broadcaster ORF.

"(Team boss) Toto (Wolff) sees it differently, but I'm a black and white thinker. If someone says 'Guys, I'm really sorry' - if someone makes a mistake and realises it - then that for me is history," said Lauda.

Lauda may be 'black and white', but boss Wolff said a major factor to consider is that Rosberg was rounding Barcelona's turn 3 "in the wrong engine setting".

"That was the reason he was significantly slower than Lewis," Wolff told Bild newspaper.

"This explains why everything happened so quickly. They both had to make decisions in a split second."

That, according to GPDA president Alex Wurz, is why Hamilton should not get all of the blame.

"I know Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda have blamed Lewis because they thought that maybe he was being too aggressive trying to push through," the former F1 driver said.

"I respect two drivers (Stewart and Lauda) with six world championships between them," added Wurz, the increasingly high-profile chief of the F1 drivers' union.

"By contrast, Jacques Villeneuve, another world champion, thought it was Nico's fault for closing the door on Lewis so aggressively, which shows how difficult it all is," he added.

"But I believe it was a racing incident and the race stewards agreed with that assessment," Wurz told The Times newspaper. "They (Hamilton and Rosberg) made a misjudgement over what was happening."

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Susie Wolff Mercedes

Replies (9)

Vet5

Posts: 225
Wait for the Ham fan boys to come and take action, Rosberg didn't cut Hamilton off in an aggressive manor, Hamilton tried to overtake in an aggressive manor! Brakes are an amazing creation and should be used. Hamilton has even taken the blame!
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- May 16 2016 - 11:19
- mclarenfan1968
  
  Posts: 1,027
  Yup gangsta boy's zealots will be out in force to defend their hommie. Nico is allowed one defensive move and he did it, it was Hamilton's call to back out or run into the grass. Butthurt boy got rekt twice but unfortunately for Nico he got taken out too, but who cares really? F1 had a good day with great racing without the mercs.
  
  As for Hamilton taking the blame, he was forced to by management ;) don't be under any illusions that guy with the ego the size of a 10 mile extinction level asteroid would do that willingly!
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  May 16 2016 - 11:24
- Vet5
  
  Posts: 225
  Haha yup, same old story eh. Yeah was a spectacular race without Mercedes dominance! and yeah I know Hamilton would have bee forced into making that plea to the fans, no way would he have appologised off his own back
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  May 16 2016 - 11:55
Barron

Posts: 625
To be quite fair, I do not believe Hamilton could be 'forced' to do anything he didn't want to, nor would he own up to something he truly believed wasn't his fault. He may be a bit of a dingbat but he is a strong character otherwise he wouldn't have got this far. PS I am not a fanboi...

Note to the site publishers: I am seeing a "Give your opinion" banner to the right that has not been changed in months! As far as I recall, this weekend's podium finishers did NOT include Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg or Valtteri Bottas!
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- May 16 2016 - 15:09
- mclarenfan1968
  
  Posts: 1,027
  Oh you are a fanboi, confirmed. Hamilton was forced to say that, he isn't the boss and he is just an employee. If an employee doesn't get in line they are fired. Fanbois think their fav driver is god. Remove those rose tinted glasses and you will see the absurdity in your claims.
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  May 17 2016 - 01:50
Pompey

Posts: 84
It might have helped if Nico had been looking in his mirrors instead of the steering wheel. A racing incident that gave us a real race for a change.
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- May 16 2016 - 17:28
f1dave

Posts: 782
Sir Jackie Stewart ,Niki Lauda, & Jacques Villeneuve aren't current drivers and tend to base their comments on the experience of twenty years or more ago.
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- May 16 2016 - 17:48
Barron

Posts: 625
McLaren fan. Completely wrong. I can't stand the bloke. He may be an "employee" but his status, pay grade & marketability give him (and others like him) a lot of edge in negotiations. Put it like this. I would never ever claim responsibility for something that wasn't my fault just because an employer told me to do it, nor would I suspect would you..Once you do that, you lose all the respect of your employer and you become a puppet. Hamilton may be a lot of things but a puppet doesn't spring readily to mind.
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- May 17 2016 - 14:20
- mclarenfan1968
  
  Posts: 1,027
  You haven't worked in industry? I can tell. Ego is a fickle thing, makes certain people act like divas with no regard to their place or role. F1 drivers especially have a god complex that they are special to the point the whole team revolves around them. Reality is totally different to what they think. Management takes decisions to correct them or fire them.
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  May 17 2016 - 16:32